Why Airport Security Is Broken - And How To Fix It

[TechMan]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html
Article written by the former head of the TSA, Kip Hawley.

From the article:

Any effort to rebuild TSA and get airport security right in the U.S. has to start with two basic principles:

First, the TSA's mission is to prevent a catastrophic attack on the transportation system, not to ensure that every single passenger can avoid harm while traveling. Much of the friction in the system today results from rules that are direct responses to how we were attacked on 9/11. But it's simply no longer the case that killing a few people on board a plane could lead to a hijacking. Never again will a terrorist be able to breach the cockpit simply with a box cutter or a knife. The cockpit doors have been reinforced, and passengers, flight crews and air marshals would intervene.

Second, the TSA's job is to manage risk, not to enforce regulations. Terrorists are adaptive, and we need to be adaptive, too. Regulations are always playing catch-up, because terrorists design their plots around the loopholes.

[MrsSmith]

Wonder if this contributed to WHY he's the former head of TSA?

Common sense and logic are frowned on in the current administration. And relinquishing control once it's been gained is unlikely.

[mtnbkr]

Actually sounds more like a political appointee changeover when BO was elected.

Good article.  I'd like to see those changes enacted.  Not having flown from before 9/11 till this year, I missed the worst of the TSA.  My travel experience this year, which included an international flight and another flight with children, were actually more pleasant than pre-9/11.  I found the TSA more pleasant and more professional than the security system in place prior to 9/11. 

Chris

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Actually sounds more like a political appointee changeover when BO was elected.

Good article.  I'd like to see those changes enacted.  Not having flown from before 9/11 till this year, I missed the worst of the TSA.  My travel experience this year, which included an international flight and another flight with children, were actually more pleasant than pre-9/11.  I found the TSA more pleasant and more professional than the security system in place prior to 9/11. 

Chris

heresy!

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

Actually sounds more like a political appointee changeover when BO was elected.

Good article.  I'd like to see those changes enacted.  Not having flown from before 9/11 till this year, I missed the worst of the TSA.  My travel experience this year, which included an international flight and another flight with children, were actually more pleasant than pre-9/11.  I found the TSA more pleasant and more professional than the security system in place prior to 9/11. 

Chris

You got lucky. Or maybe the security was private, wearing TSA ninja attire

[mtnbkr]

To be fair, they may have been fairly well beaten into submission by the bad press over the last decade.  I've only seen them recently.  Some of the abuses were quite well documented and even admitted by the TSA.  All I'm saying is my experiences in 2012 were not unpleasant, or at least no more so than pre 9/11.

Chris

[mtnbkr]

You got lucky. Or maybe the security was private, wearing TSA ninja attire

4 separate airports, one overseas: Dulles (outbound international flight), Reagan-National, Heathrow (return to USA), and Orlando International.

None are exactly lightly traveled or low profile.  Orlando might have been private, but they wore TSA uniforms.  Obviously Heathrow was not TSA, but they operated in the same fashion.

Chris

[Tallpine]

4 separate airports, one overseas: Dulles (outbound international flight), Reagan-National, Heathrow (return to USA), and Orlando International.

None are exactly lightly traveled or low profile.  Orlando might have been private, but they wore TSA uniforms.  Obviously Heathrow was not TSA, but they operated in the same fashion.

Chris

I dunno about those - but trying going through the basement (non- 1st class, medallion, platinum, etc) of LAX 

Or maybe it just doesn't bother you to be stripped of your possesions including money and id, and much of your clothes, and treated like a criminal 

[mtnbkr]

I dunno about those - but trying going through the basement (non- 1st class, medallion, platinum, etc) of LAX 

Or maybe it just doesn't bother you to be stripped of your possesions including money and id, and much of your clothes, and treated like a criminal 

I haven't flown through LAX since 1999, but I certainly didn't go through any special class of security at the airports above.  Just went through with the rest of the herd.  I removed my shoes and belt (except for the return via Orlando, forgot to remove my belt and it didn't alarm) and put my watch, keys, etc into my carry-on to ride through the scanner (easier to grab the one bag than to scoop up a bunch of loose stuff).  I was through the metal detector before my stuff came through.  For my 4 flights this year, only the shoe removal was different than my pre-9/11 experiences (as far as process is concerned, the list of contraband is longer obviously).

Maybe I don't look or act suspicious enough for the special attention.  On the trip to/from the UK, I was even carrying a book about guns.

Chris

[Fly320s]

4 separate airports, one overseas: Dulles (outbound international flight), Reagan-National, Heathrow (return to USA), and Orlando International.

None are exactly lightly traveled or low profile.  Orlando might have been private, but they wore TSA uniforms.  Obviously Heathrow was not TSA, but they operated in the same fashion.

Chris

Those are all TSA-staffed airports.

The only major airport that I know about that isn't staffed by TSA is SFO. They are CSA, but they look nearly identical to the TSA tards.

[Tallpine]

I haven't flown through LAX since 1999, but I certainly didn't go through any special class of security at the airports above.  Just went through with the rest of the herd.

The "herd" (unless you are special) goes through 1/4 mile long underground tunnel with fat black TSA goons screaming at you the whole time.  :(

It's gotten a lot worse since the nude-o-scope is near universal.  As a guy, I really don't care all that much about my body being seen by some pervert in a closet, but you have to take off more stuff than with the metal detectors. 

I guess a man in a suit can wear a standard necktie, but I can't wear a bandana in lieu of as I normally do.  That, and you are supposed to give up your cash, IDs, credit cards - everything except shirt/socks/pants - to go through the scanner.

It would only take one set of sticky fingers and you would lose identity and wherewithal in some remote city.

Maybe the problem is that I'm older and remember an America that was mostly sorta free, and you only saw that kind of stuff in old WW2 movies about Nazi Germany.

[AZRedhawk44]

It would only take one set of sticky fingers and you would lose identity and wherewithal in some remote city.

This.

It's about control and surrender of it.

How does my money, id, credit cards and all have anything to do with aircraft security, that my underwear and socks doesn't?  If I can hide nasty things in my billfold on my person, then I can hide nasty things in my socks or briefs.

The surrendering of money and such is to trap you if you choose to decline the security screening mid-way through.  It's power and control.  Not security.

[erictank]

For security's sake (ACTUAL security, as opposed to Team Sexual Assault's "security theater"), if you must fly, lock your wallet, cash, etc. in a readily-accessible outside pocket of your carryon before going through security. Don't use a TSA-approved lock for this, it's not required except for checked baggage, and it'll keep sticky-fingered screeners and others out of your bag until you're standing right there and can watch them "screen" your bag. Keep your ID with you as long as you must, then tuck it in your carryon before it goes on the X-Ray machine. Since a fair number of people get groped even if they've gone through the Nude-O-Scope, I don't see the point in submitting to that myself - tell 'em to just call for a groper right away.

Be polite, but be assertive - make sure your stuff stays where you can see it at all times when getting groped (or going through the scanner, for that matter) - Team Sexual Assault is *SUPPOSED* to ensure that happens, but you may need to remind them. Call for a supervisor, if required.

[Tallpine]

Assuming your entire bag doesn't just disappear ... 

[MechAg94]

Last time I flew a few years ago, I almost got pulled aside.  I went through the metal detector and completely forgot about the cell phone holder clipped to my belt with the magnetic clasp.  I think the TSA guy had gotten a little tense there. 

[MechAg94]

The last time the TSA started doing outrageous stuff, I recall hearing a radio guy or two speculate that they were testing the waters to see what they could get away with or just deliberately making headlines to distract people from something else.  It was pointed out that the cases were only at a few airports and didn't affect 99.9% of travelers.